Art of making soap cakes provided with inserts.



PATENTED OCT. 6, 1903.

" r W. BERRY.

ART OF MAKING. SOAP CAKES PROVIDED WITH INSERTS.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 14, 1902.

3 SHEBTSSHEET 1.

N0 MODEL.

THE uoaws PETERS co. mow-Lima. wnsumsmn. no.

N0.-740,3s7. IPATENTED 0013. 6,1903.

. W. BERRY.

ART OF MAKING SOAP CAKES PROVIDED WITH INSERTS.

APPLMATION FILED JULY 14, 1902. 170 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 3 Y f W 1PATENTED 0616,1903.

3 SHEETSSHEBT 3.

W. BERRY.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 14. 1902.

ART OF MAKING sum? CAKES PROVIDED WITH INSERTS.

vi la-47171111011!!! wuw Witnessar:

UNITED STAT S Patented October 6, 1903.

PATENT OEEicE.

WASHINGTON BERRY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO BERRY BUOYANT SOAPCOMPANY, OF OHICAGQILLINOIS, A CORPORA- TION OF ILLINOIS.

ART OF MAKING SOAP CAKES PROVIDED WITH INSERTS SPECIFICATION" formingpart of Letters Patent No. 740,387, dated October 6, 1903.

Application filed July 14, 1902. Serial llo. 115,482. (No specimens.) 7

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WASHINGTON BERRY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in the Art of Making Soapv(lakes Provided with Inserts, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the art of manufacturing cakesof soap, eachof which cakes shall be provided with an insert either forthe purpose of giving buoyancy to the soap, or for receiving advertisingmatter,'or for modifying the color of the soap, or to provide a suitablehandpiece for carrying the soap until entirely consumed, or for anyother suitable purpose. In the practical development of this artnumerous difficulties have been encountered which have seriouslyinterfered with the commercial establishment of this art. In order tocomply with practical requirements, it is necessary that when completedeach cake of soap shall contain an insert which shall be centrallylocated in the soap cake and that the insert, it made of wood to givebuoyancy to the soap, shall be so treated or protected that the alkaliesof the soap and the tannin andlike elements in the wood shall notcombine either to injuriously afiect the soap, or to so discolor thewood as to make it unsightly in case the wood is used in a transparentsoap, or to make the advertising matter thereon indistinct, or to afiectthe color of the soap in case it is a' tinted transparent soap. It isfurther necessary that means shall be provided to permit the rising ofair-bubbles through the liquid soap in the mold, which might otherwisegather adjacent to the inserts and render the. soap spongy in spots,unsightly, and unsalable. It is further necessary that the inserts shallbe so arranged in the mold that when the soap has hardened about theinserts it may be automatically cut into cakes, which shall'be out apartat a point equidistant between every two inserts. To provide a processwhich shall meet all these requirements in a practical and commercialmanner'is the primary object of my present invention. This and suchother objects as may hereinafterappear areat-tained by the processhereinafter described, which may be conveniently practiced in connectionwith the devices shown in the accompanying drawings, in which-- Fignre 1is a longitudinal sectional view of an insert setting or impalingmachine. Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the same machine. Fig.3 isan elevation of an insert-supporting barsupplied with a plurality ofinserts. Fig. 4 is a sectional view of a convenient form of mold.Fig.5isanenlargeddetailthereof. Fig.' 6 is an end elevation of a rackcontaining a plurality ofmolds. Fig. 7 is afront view thereof. Fig. 8 isa longitudinal section through armachine for removing the bars of soapfrom the molds.

Fig. 9 is a similar section showing a bar of soap forced into thereceiving-cylinder. Fig. 10 is a cross sectional view on the line 10 10of Fig. 9 looking in the direction indicated by the arrows. Fig. 11 is alike view on the line 11 11 of Fig. 9 looking in the direction indicatedby the-arrows. Fig. 12 is a detail showing a pivoted knife in connec'tion with a perforated diaphragm which may be used to clean the surfaceof the bar of soap as it is removed from the mold and to give it abrilliant and attractive appearance. Like letters of reference indicatethe same parts in the several figures of the drawings. Starting with thewooden inserts, I first treat or prepare these inserts so as to preventany undesirable combination between the elements contained in the soapand the elementscontained in the wood of which the insert is formed.This treatment consists in coating or sizing the inserts in any convenient; or suitable manner. Ihave; however, obtained the best results byputting a considerable. number of inserts .into a revolnble tumbler,through which a blast of air is di-' rected, andin then putting in'thetumbler, with the inserts, a small quantity of ricestarch, obtainedby boiling rice-kernels in water to a soft pulp and in then strainingthe same through a sieve of fine mesh, the pasty semiliquid productwhich passes through the mesh being what I have termed rice-starch. Whenthe inserts are removed from the tumbler, it will be found that eachinsert is thoroughly sized with a substantially uniform too but verythin coating of rice-starch, which has at the same time been driedthereon by the air-current passing through the tumbler. I have foundthat this sizing affords a sufficient coating between the wood of theinsert and the soap surrounding the insert to prevent any discolorationof the insert by the elements contained in the soap and to prevent anyundesirable combination in the soap of the soap element with the tanninor other elements of the wood. At the same time this coating is notperceptible to the eye after the soap has been cast around the insert.

If it is desired to print advertisingmatter upon the inserts, this maybe done either before or after sizing; but I prefer sizing the insertsafter the advertising matter has been printed thereon, thereby providinga protective coating between the ink and the soap. The next step relatesto means for so arranging the inserts A in the mold that they shall bein axial alinement with each other and shall be equidistant from eachother. This result may be conveniently achieved by means of the machineshown in Figs. 1 and 2, which machine comprises a spacing-trough B,having converging walls and provided with spacing-blocks O. The insertsmay be quickly placed between the spacing-blocks 0, each insert beingautomatically held adjacent to one spacing-block by a spring upon theopposite face of the next adjacent spacingblock. This insures thearrangement of the inserts at an equal distance from each other,

while the converging walls of the trough upon which the edges of theinserts rest automatically bring the inserts into axial alinement witheach other.

The impaling-machine is provided with a Verticallyreciprocating crosshead D, ar' ranged above the trough and provided with means forremovably receiving an insert-supporting bar E. This insert-supportingbar is provided with a plurality of impaling-pins 6, extending from oneside thereof and in alinement with each other. When the pin-supportingbar is locked in the cross-head, it is arranged above and in alinementwith the inserts in the spacing-trough, the impalingpins pointingdownwardly toward the inserts and being so arranged '.that eachimpalingpin is directly above one of the inserts in the trough.Thereupon by a quick downward movement of the cross-head, which may beactuated in any convenient manner, each of the impaling-pins upon theinsert-supporting bar is driven into the edge of one of the insertswithout disturbing either the spacing or alinement of the inserts in thetrough. The cross-head is now returned to its original position,carrying with it the insert-supporting bar, each pin of which nowcarries an insert, as shown in Fig. 3. The insert-supporting bar isremoved from the cross-head and is inserted in a longitudinal recessformed at one side of the mold F, (see Fig. 6,) the impaling-pinsprojectinginto the mold through cake.

the slotfand supporting the inserts centrally in the mold.

The mold F is preferably open at both the upper and lower ends, thelower end being closed when the liquid soap is poured into the mold inany convenient manner, preferably by means of a rubber pad or otherstopper G, upon which the lower end of the mold rests, the lower end ofthe mold sinking into the rubber to make a sufficiently tight joint atthe lower end of the mold. So, also, the lower end of the mold may besunk into a sheet of soap or the like.

Having arranged the insert-supporting bar in position in the mold, Inext set the mold in a racksuch, for instance, as H. (Shown in Figs. 6and 7.) Any convenient device may be used, however, which permits of themold being inclined at such an angle that the air-bubbles rising throughthe liquid soap when the soap has been poured into the mold may escapefrom the under sides of the inserts, as shown in Figs. at and 5. Unlessthe mold is so inclined there will be a tendency for air-bubbles to formand to adhere to the under sides of the inserts enough to entirelydestroy the commercial value of the soap The hot liquid soap is nowpoured into the mold, completely surrounding the inserts. Theair-bubbles rise freely through the mass of liquid soap owing to theinclined position of the mold, forming a frothy mass at the top of themold. When the soap has cooled and set sufficiently, the mold is removedfrom the rubber, soap, or the like which has served to close its lowerend, and is placed in the mold clamp I. (Shown in Figs. 8 and 9.) Thebar of soap J and the insert-support E,which is still attached to theinserts A, which are now cast inside of the bar of soap, are forced fromthe mold by means of the plunger K, which is forced into the bottom ofthe mold and through the mold by any suitable means.

In order to insure having the bar of soap perfectly symmetrical andclean, I provide the perforated diaphragm L, which is attached to theend of the receiving-cylinder M, so that when the bar of soap is forcedout of the cylinder M by the plunger it will simultaneously be forcedthrough the perforated diaphragm L, which, having an opening therethrough slightly less in diameter than the interior diameter of the mold,scrapes a thin film from the convex surface of the bar of soap, so thatas the bar passes through the diaphragm L it has a perfectly cleansymmetrical surface with a brilliant finish.

The receiving or transfer cylinder M is provided with a slot m, whichreceives the shanks of the impaling-pins of the insert-supporting bar asthe bar of soap and the insert-supporting bar are forced out of themold. When the bar has been entirely forced from the mold and into thetransfer-cylinder, the insert-supporting bar E, which now rests upon thesurface of the transfer-cylinder, with the impaling-pins projecting intothe cylinder through the narrow slotf, may now be manually removed,thereby withdrawing the impaling-pins from the inserts in the bar ofsoap. The inclined frothy end of the soap bar,

which was the top of the bar when in the mold, is now out ofi, and wehave a symmetrical, clean, and finished bar of soap containing aplurality of inserts arranged therein equidistant from and in properalinement with each other, so that with a knife or other cuttinginstrument set at the proper gage the bar is next cut into cakes of soapeach of which shall contain a centrally disposed insert. The cakes arenow put into any suitable pressing-machine, which not only gives thesoap cakes such finish as may be desired, irnsubstantially white woodare used and have been treatedas above described, so as to preventdiscoloration, the light reflected therefrom will very materially modifythe tinting of the soap, so that a cake of transparent soap of a givencolor provided with one of these inserts will produce on the eye a verydifierent effect from a like cake of the same soap and of the same colornot provided with such an insert. Indeed, by the aid of these in-, sertsin modifying the color effectI have succeeded in producing color effectswhich have been heretofore considered practically impossible ofattainment. So, of course, the color efiect of the soap may be furthermodified by using inserts of different tints or colors.

I do not here claim the apparatus shown in the drawings, the same beingthe subject-matter of my copending applications, filed July 10, 1902,and serially numbered 115,003 and 115,004, respectively.

1. The step in the art described which consists in coating theinsertswith a sizingcompound.

2. The step in the art described which consists in coating the insertswith a transparent film of a sizing compound.

3. The step in the art described which consists in coating the woodeninserts with a transparent film of a sizing compound.

4. The step in the art described which consists in coating the insertswith a film of a starchy sizing compound, substantially as described. I

5. The step in the art described which consists in mounting a series ofinserts and in then casting soap around said inserts, substantially asand for the purpose'described.

6. The-process of making soap cakes with inserts, which comprisessetting inserts so that the faces of the inserts shall lie at an angleto the perpendicular, substantially as and for the purpose described.

7. The process of manufacturing soap cakes with inserts, which comprisessetting inserts, so that the faces of the inserts shall be at an angleto the perpendicular, and then pouring liquid soap around the inserts,substantially as described.

8. The art of manufacturing soap cakes with inserts, which comprisesarranging a plurality of inserts in axial alinement with each other,said inserts being spaced apart, in pouring liquid soap around saidinserts, allowing said soap to set, removing the bar of soap so formedand cutting the same into which shall contain an insert, and thenobliterating the opening left by the insert-supporting device andfinishing. the soap cakes by pressing the same into finished shape,substantially as described.

10. The process in the art described,which comprises treating theinserts with a protective coating, mounting the inserts so that thesurfaces of the inserts shall be at an angle to the perpendicular,casting soap about said insorts and cutting the bar of soap, so formed,into insert-containing cakes, substantially as described. v

' WASHINGTON BERRY. Witnesses:

F. H. DRURY,

M. E. SHIELDS.

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